Bengaluru, Feb 22: Thanks to joint efforts by the Protector of Emigrants in Bengaluru and Indian Embassy in Qatar, a 26-year-old woman from Karnataka who had been kept in confinement in Qatar has been rescued and brought back to India.
Anupama (name changed) from Holenarasipura in Hassan district arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday night. She was allegedly locked up in a house for 14 days, restrained from using a mobile and wasn't fed. There were three other women with her. On the midnight of February 12, they broke the window panes and fled before contacting local police.
Anupama, a diploma graduate in computer science, was jobless and her friend working in Kuwait suggested she try for a job abroad. She contacted an agency based in Chikkamagaluru which offered her a nanny's job in Qatar. After document verification, the agency demanded she pay Rs 2 lakh but she said she didn't have that kind of money.
The agency sent Anupama on a visitor visa but told her if questioned by immigration officials, she must claim she was visiting her sister. They also gave her a return ticket.
As Anupama was travelling abroad for the first time, she said she was ignorant about several things.
On January 12, Anupama left Bengaluru. But as she reached Qatar, all her documents, including passport, were confiscated by the agency. Her return ticket was cancelled and she was sent to a house to work as babysitter-cum-cook for Rs 30,000. She lived with four other maids in the same house, where they were made to work for 16-18 hours a day.
"I used to wake up around 5.30am every day and had to prepare breakfast for the employers by 6.30am. My work would end around 11pm every day. We never even got time to eat," Anupama told media on Friday. Four days into work, Anupama's nose started bleeding. However, the employers cared little and insisted she continue to work. After 18 days, she requested her employers that she be relieved.
The agency sent her to a house where three women were already present and locked her up with them. "They used to give us a glass of raw rice, an onion, tomato and potato to cook for ourselves. While we got rice every day, we had to use the vegetables for three days. We were not supposed to use mobiles or go out. Two people were monitoring us," she recalled.
Anupama and the others decided to approach police but for that they needed to escape. Around 1.30am on February 12, the four women managed to break window panes and jumped out. They ran for more than a kilometre and managed to approach police, who summoned the agency and got the women to speak to their families.
Anupama called her brother-in-law, who approached the Protector of Emigrants office in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Shubham Singh, PoE in Bengaluru, said they took up the issue with the Indian Embassy in Qatar, which immediately got in touch with Qatar police. Anupama said, "We were kept in prison for a couple of days and were sent to the deportation centre later."
Meanwhile, the Indian embassy got the agency to return the women's documents. However, the agents did not pay their salaries. Two of the women were sent to Hyderabad and the third to Kerala. On Friday, Anupama met Singh at his office, where her statement was recorded. "We have started the process of initiating action against the agency in India," he said.
Comments
To all Parents
Please don't listen to this uneducated BJP moron. Please educate your daughters and then get them married. so they can standup on their own feet if needed. Regardless of your religion.
Hello cow dung brain man sangeeth...muslim ruled indian for 1000 years..that time all hindu are happily living together....when maron people org RSS came to our land all destroyed.. you are the people who became the first slave of british and licking there boot for power plz check the history..you people are coward..you can sell your family & soul to BJP maron party but not all esteem hindus...keep in mind lion is always lion...its image will not fade if some name sake maroon make comments...jai india.. jai hind
what a good idea,,, chalo chaloo karthe hai thera beti ka shaadhi karvaake.
This prooves, with the present goverment of fools we are already gone 100 years backwards in developement.
Rubbish... Who made such fool as MLA
People wont learn from this. They need experience. If RSS not in India, Muslims people may convert India into a Muslim country
He said the truth. It is better than love jihad
Shame on you.. should punish him for the nonsense statement
I cant believe, how people supports BJP fools again and again.
Should arrest him and give him punishment for promoting child marriages.
In headline, no need to mention its BJP MLA. "MLA" is enough. We knew, only BJP MLAs are fools and they will only utter such nonsenses
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